Malcolm McLaren

Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren (22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010) was an English fashion designer and music manager. He was a promoter and a manager for punk rock and new wave bands such as New York Dolls, Sex Pistols, Adam and the Ants, and Bow Wow Wow, and was an early commercial architect of the punk subculture.

McLaren was brought up by his grandmother after his father, Peter, left the family home. He attended a number of British art colleges in the 1960s, where he became involved in underground art and left-wing activism. From 1974 to 1976 he operated the Chelsea boutique Sex with his girlfriend Vivienne Westwood, which helped shape early punk fashion and became an early hub for the subculture in London. After a period advising the New York Dolls in the United States, McLaren managed the Sex Pistols, for which he recruited frontman Johnny Rotten. The issue of a controversial record, “God Save the Queen”, satirising the Queen’s Jubilee in 1977, was typical of McLaren’s shock tactics, and he gained publicity by being arrested after a promotional boat trip outside the Houses of Parliament.

In the 1980s, McLaren continued managing other London acts and performed as a solo artist, initially focusing on hip hop and world music and later diversifying into funk, disco, and electronic dance music. When accused of turning popular culture into a cheap marketing gimmick, he joked that he hoped it was true. His first album, Duck Rock, was certified silver in the UK and spawned the top-ten singles “Buffalo Gals” and “Double Dutch”.

In his later years, he lived in Paris and New York City, and died of peritoneal mesothelioma in a Swiss hospital.

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